


Two Bloods

by adanseys



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Boy Band, Alternate Universe - Human, Boyband, F/F, F/M, Girl Band, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-21
Updated: 2015-06-03
Packaged: 2018-02-05 16:16:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1824580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adanseys/pseuds/adanseys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jason, Percy, Leo and Frank are living the high life as one of America's most famous and beloved boy bands. But when a rival girl band suddenly appears on the scene and starts stealing all their publicity, how are they going to get America to love them again?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

 

“Bruh,” Percy said, rubbing his eyes, slowly twitching them open. His head was throbbing, like it was being pounded like a drum. “Where are we?”

Jason was still asleep, curled up in the corner of the wall. Percy kicked him in the shins, startling him awake. “Dude, what gives,” Jason mumbled, closing his eyes again. “It's like, four am or something.”

“No, bro, it's like 9. I have , like, nine missed calls off Frank?? Dude. Where the fuck are we?” Somehow, Percy and Jason had ended up in some sort of back alleyway in the middle of town, filled with all the garbage. A stray cat had made its home on Jason's shirt which, for some reason, was on top of a heap of rubbish bags at the other end of the path.

“Dude! A bird's had a shit on your shoulder!” Percy laughed, pointing at him. That definitely woke Jason out of his sleep.

“What? Oh what the fuck,” Jason groaned, wanting to scrape it off but not wanting to touch it at the same time. He sat up straight against the wall and looked at Percy for the first time. “Bro what the fuck, where are your pants?”

Percy looked down. Jason was right; he was wearing nothing but his embarrassing Little Mermaid boxer shorts. Unlike Jason, he still had his shirt on, but his trousers, shoes and one of his socks had gone missing. “At least I have a shirt.”

Jason stretched and hauled himself up. Percy watched as he walked over to pick his shirt up from under the cat. _Man he has a nice ass,_ he thought to himself as he stared at him. _Dude! That's gay!_ He chided to himself mentally. Who cares if Jason's butt was so firm and round? Not him. _Think of boobs man, think of the boobs._

Percy tried to look away as Jason put his shirt on and instead busied himself with his phone. 'Just at some hotel with Jason, where are you?' he texted Frank back. What had happened last night? He couldn't remember a thing. The last thing he could recall was leaving the first club at around 11 and after that everything was a blur.

“Man, I don't know about you, but I can't remember anything,” Percy said. “How did we even get here?”

“I don't know...The last thing I remember was getting kicked out of the club after you told the DJ to fuck off after he wouldn't play Thrift Shop.”

“Jason I'm pretty sure that was you.”

“Shut up! Anyone you can't make fun of me, you don't even have pants on.”

“Oh yeah? Maybe 'cause I was scoring with too many fine ladies I couldn't keep them on...The most action you got last night was when some random ass old lady touched your hand by accident as she gave you a drink,” Percy countered. Jason would really be feeling that burn.

“Anyway,” Jason said, ignoring his comments, “What have you told Frank?”

“Oh, don't worry, I didn't tell him we'd woke up in some back alleyway with no pants on. That's gay. I told him we were just in some hotel after a night out.”

“DUDE THAT JUST MAKES IT SOUND EVEN MORE GAY.”

“SHIT!” Percy exclaimed. Immediately, he grabbed his phone from his pocket and texted Frank 'don't worry, we're not there together. Like separate rooms. We're not gay haha'. Phew, that would erase any suspicions.

“For fuck's sake Percy. How are we going to get back? We can't exactly just walk back to our apartment. I don't even know where we are and you're half-naked.”

Before Percy could respond, Percy's phone started vibrating.

“Hello?” Percy asked. “Who's this?”

“Dude!!” said Leo's voice. “Are you with Jason?”

“Yeah...why?”

“Put me on speaker so I can talk to both of you.”

Percy did as he was asked and beckoned Jason to come over to the phone. “Jason, are you there man?”

“Yeah, 'sup man?” Jason replied, nodding his head even though Leo couldn't see over the phone.

“Guys, where the hell are you? We have that interview in ten minutes remember? Nobody's heard from you since last night, though Frank tells me you two have had a busy night...” Even though he couldn't see, Percy could tell Leo was winking at them and clicking his fingers.

“Oh yeah, we just...,” Percy tried racking his brains for a good lie. He'd completely forgotten about that interview for Teen weekly. He still had a hangover for God's sake, he was in no state to answer questions. Especially not the way he was dressed.

“We'll be there as quick as we can, don't worry,” Jason interrupted him. “Tell Frank we're on our way. 24th Street, right?”

“You better, the manager's gonna kill you if you're late,” Leo said. “Anyway, gotta go, Frank's having trouble tying his shoes or whatever. See ya there.” He hung up the phone.

“Shit man what are we gonna do?” Percy said, scratching his head. He wasn't good with interviews. Not that he ever got a word in them anyways. Mostly, it was just Leo going on and on and on about stuff that never even made it into the magazines or newspapers anyway. The interviewer always tried to ask everyone an equal amount, or ask general ones, but Leo hogged them all anyway. He was always trying to be the centre of attention. In theory, their band, Two Bloods, had no lead singer- they were all equal, but everyone knew that wasn't true. While they all had a similar amount of solo lines, Leo, Percy and Jason always seemed to get far more public attention than Frank. Maybe that was because they were always involved in some big media scandal or headline, while Frank preferred to stay in the background out of the limelight. Every week there was something new: Leo seen with yet _another_ girl, Jason and Percy's wild Friday night club adventures...

“I have an idea,” Jason mused, bending down (giving Percy another lovely view) and grabbing something out of one of the black bin bags. Finally, he pulled out a pair of black jeans that looked relatively clean. “Here, wear these.” He threw them over to Percy.

“Dude, I am _not_ wearing stuff out of the garbage.” He held them at arm's length, examining them. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with them, no stains, no rips, no secret insect homes inside them. But still, they were thrown out for a reason.

“Well do you have any better ideas? They always put us in other clothes for interviews anyway.”

“Ugh, fine,” Percy agreed reluctantly. The jeans were really skinny, he had to force himself into them and couldn't do the zips up. The pockets were really shallow, he could hardly fit his phone in. They were probably a few sizes too small, but they'd do for now. Like Jason said, they always dress them in new clothes for photoshoots anyway, then he could get rid of them. Maybe he could sell them on eBay: 'real jeans worn by Percy Jackson'.

Jason looked at his phone while Percy struggled with the zip. He suddenly remembered that he didn't have any shoes either. Jeans were one thing, but he sure as hell was _not_ wearing some stranger's shoes from the garbage. Bowling was bad enough wearing other people's shoes, but at least they got sprayed with disinfectant afterwards. He'd just have to walk barefoot to wherever they were going.

“Right, I think I know where we are, and as it happens we're like ten minutes away from the place we need to be at, luckily for us. We should probably get going now though just in case, you sure you don't want any shoes?” Jason smirked, looking down at Percy's bare feet.

“I'll pass,” Percy muttered. “Come on, let's go.”

The two of them started walking. Luckily, there wasn't that many people around as there would normally be. He just hoped they wouldn't get recognised by anyone. A fan encounter was the last thing he wanted right now. All he wanted was to get to that building, get dressed in some nice designer clothes, do the interview, overdose on painkillers and go back to bed and sleep off his hangover. He felt so tired, like he could drop off to sleep right in the middle of the path. He would have done, but the management would kill him. He was already on thin ice with them after last month, when he and Jason had found themselves naked outside of McDonalds on a Sunday morning after a particularly wild night out when all shots had been half price. Jason and Percy had managed to try every single kind they had between them.

Jason's phone kept going off every five seconds. Who was he texting? Probably Frank. He was definitely the parent of the group, trying to keep everyone out of trouble, but failing miserably, and constantly checking up on what they were doing. One day, he hoped to get Frank so wasted he would forget his own name, but so far the most he'd ever seen Frank drink was a glass of water. He was so boring sometimes, but the girls seemed to dig him. Everyone seemed to want to know about this mysterious strong and silent type guy. He was getting all sorts of solo work: interviews, photoshoots, everything. While Leo, Jason and Percy seemed to be in the public eye the most, the ones everyone knew, it was Frank that everyone adored. Typical how the one guy that seemed to hate fame the most got the most of it.

“Dude, who are you texting?” Percy asked after hearing his phone vibrate for what felt like the hundredth time. “That must have been like the fiftieth one. This minute.”

“I don't even know, man. She just started texting this morning like 'hey babe you still on for Friday?' like I don't even remember agreeing to go on a date or anything so I just started playing along and...”

“Must be someone you met last night. Man, she must have been absolutely off her face to want to get off with you,” Percy said, though he couldn't help but feel a little jealous, though he quickly shoved that thought to the back of his mind. “What's her name? Is she hot?”

“Idil, apparently. Or at least that's the name in my phone. And yeah, she is,” he said with a smile.

“Bro I bet you can't even remember what she looks like. I bet you'll turn up on Friday to your date or whatever and not be able to recognise her. She could be like a forty year old man as far as you know.”

They continued to argue like that for a while until they finally reached the building on 24 th  Street. Of course, when they went inside Leo and Frank were already there. Unfortunately, so was their manager, who was looking as happy as an eight year old kid finding out their parents had bought them socks for Christmas. Percy deliberately avoided his stern gaze, and instead followed the young, hot, blonde intern who was beckoning for him to go into the dressing room where Leo and Frank were.

Weirdly, there were no clothes in there. Usually, there were rails upon rails of them, and they'd try dozens and dozens of similar-looking t-shirts before finding one that felt right. But here, there was nothing. It was completely devoid of anything.

“Percy! Jason! You're here!” shouted a voice from across the room. She had a vague Swiss German accent. A young, Malaysian woman with long, black hair came running towards them, a huge smile beaming on her face. “Hey y'all, Glad you could make it, we were worried you'd never arrive! I'm Nia, I'm going to be conducting the interview today, and this here is Vri, she'll be taking the photos,” she said, gesturing to a pretty woman with glasses who, for some reason, kept staring into the distance and wouldn't look anyone in the eye.

“Nice to meet you,” Jason said politely, shaking both of their hands.

“No offence,” Percy began, “but where are all the clothes? And where's the stylist? Usually we have someone to pick the clothes out and--”

Nia laughed. “Oh yeah, usually that's what happened. But I'm feeling this one should be all natural, like let everyone know the real you and that. There'll be no stylists here,” she said laughing again. “And if the real you doesn't wear shoes and likes wearing children's jeans, then that's fine with me!”

“What?” Percy spluttered. “Children's jeans?” He looked down at his legs. The jeans did look awfully short on him, and upon further inspection, he saw they had ink and food stains all over them. No wonder they hadn't seemed to fit properly. He looked over at the other boys, who seemed to be beside themselves laughing at him.

He was going to murder Jason.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

In the end, Percy had managed to convince Nia to allow him to change into some better jeans and actually put something on his feet. Now he didn't look like a loser.

“You always _do_ look like a loser, no matter what clothes you've got on,” Leo had told him. Percy had punched him in the arm and told him to shut up.

Percy couldn't stop fidgeting as he was sitting in his chair. He hated these interviews. He never knew what to say. His manager had told him to stop using so much surfer slang and cut down on his use of the word 'bruh' and 'dude'; it was bad for their image. But he couldn't help it, no matter how much he tried.

“So,” Nia began, pressing the record button on the machine next to her. “boys, I hear you've been working on a new album. Is there anything you can share about that?”

“Yeah! We've just been in the recording studio like three days ago. Sounding pretty good so far,” Frank said seriously. “We've--”

“Pretty good? I think you mean totally _awesome!”_ Leo interjected. He never seemed to let Frank finish what he was saying.

“How so?” Nia asked, sounding intrigued.

“We've been trying out a new sound. Like this album has a lot more guitar riffs and shi--” he stopped himself before he could swear. “Stuff. Not like full-on rock, but more anthemic stuff, not like the pre-teen Disney pop like our debut,” he laughed.

“But the pre-teen Disney pop is what made you famous in the first place! Speaking of which, you've been together for what, three, four years now, and you still all share one apartment? How do you manage to stay such good friends without driving each other up the wall?”

Before Leo could say anything about how much Frank hated him, Jason spoke up. “We're just really good friends, you know. We've been through a lot together, and like you said, we live together, we work together, tour, record albums, write, everything. To do that, you gotta really have a good bond, otherwise it's not gonna work, and I couldn't imagine doing that with any other guys,” Jason said with his million-dollar smile.

“Aww, that's so sweet!” Nia exclaimed, sounding genuinely warmed by his words. She asked loads of other standard questions: future prospects, stuff about the upcoming tour, if there's any romance on the cards (to which Leo replied that he's been linked to so many 'foxy ladies' he can't even keep up).

“So, Percy, Jason, this question's for you,” Nia said. Percy blinked. He never seemed to get personal questions, mainly because he never gave answers longer than one or two lines. “By now, practically the whole country's aware of your, erm, antics shall we call them...”

_Here we go..._

“Last month it was McDonalds, the month before that it was the beach...You're beginning to get a bit of a reputation as the 'bad boys' of the group. What have you got to say about that?”

What kind of question was that. Percy looked over to Jason, who looked at him and gave him a 'you talk first' kind of look. “Um,” Percy began, “We're just trying to have a good time, you know. I mean we're young, we're 20, we like partying sometimes, just like any other guys our age. The only difference is, when we do something bad we end up in the paper.”

“Surprisingly insightful, Percy!” Nia said, nodding her head. What was that supposed to mean? That he couldn't be even the slightest bit philosophical? “Now, I'm going to read some questions sent in by fans,” she said, passing Frank a bowl full of questions written on coloured paper. “Pick one and read it out, then everyone has to answer.”

Frank closed his eyes and picked out a question on a pink piece of paper. “What is your favourite colour of the rainbow- nianderthall.” He paused before answering. “Red.”

“Man, that's gay!” Leo said. Percy nodded in agreement. “Like the gay rainbow flag. Is this person trying to say I'm gay?”

“Hey, just because it's about rainbows doesn't mean it has to be gay. And anyway, Leo, what's so bad about being gay anyway, hmm?” Jason said, looking him directly in the eye. Leo didn't answer. “That's what I thought.”

“Nothing man, I'm just saying,” Leo sighed. “Next question: where is your favourite place to get skinny jeans – bunne”

“I don't wear skinny jeans,” answered Frank frankly. “They just feel weird.”

“Forever 21,” said Leo. “Great jeans, great place to meet cute girls.”

Jason said Hollister and Percy wasn't quite sure what to say. He couldn't be truthful and say his mum still bought most of his clothes for him. He'd moved out a while ago but she still sent him things all the time. So, he said the first clothes shop that came to his mind: hot topic. Leo called him an emo but Percy just told him to shut up.

Jason picked the next question. “What is your favourite meme – mer. Erm, that's a bit weird. I'm not sure? But I can tell you my _least_ favourite- Macklemore hate. Like seriously, people have got to stop saying things like 'Macklemore didn't die in a thrift shop for this!'. Just because he's a straight ally doesn't mean we have to make fun of him, I mean he does so much good and people overlook that. He doesn't get any of the credit he deserves. God, I bet if he were gay people would listen to him then,” Jason groaned. Once Jason got started talking about his idol, it was hard to stop him.

“Nothing can beat 'that feel when no gf'. Of course, I never know that feel. All the ladies are lining up to date me,” boasted Leo, even though it wasn't true. Leo had probably had about two girlfriends in his life, the first one when he was in kindergarten, which didn't really count.

“It's an old one, but I love rickrolling and rage comics,” Percy replied. “Classic.”

Finally, Frank said he loved lolcats. Then, Percy picked the next question, which was favourite Macklemore song, sent in by thaliagraze. Naturally, Jason said Same Love, then went on to talk about its cultural impact and effect on both his life and society, and what he thought would come from it in the future. Leo said Thrift Shop, Frank said didn't really know many songs (which was a complete lie- Jason played his albums on repeat every day) and Percy wasn't sure, he didn't want to piss Jason off so just said 'all of them'.

More questions came like 'favourite axe body spray' and some weirder ones like 'favourite pony' until an intriguing one came from someone who had asked what they looked for in a girl and what their standards were. Each boy had a completely different answer.

Leo said he was looking for a girl who was 'totally hot' but was also funny, smart, talented, popular, cool and loads more adjectives which created an image of a perfect, but completely unattainable girlfriend who would never in a million years go for Leo.

Frank was much nicer. He said he wanted a girl who understood him and wouldn't be put off by his awkwardness or shyness. He wanted someone who he could have a good conversation with as they'd be on the same wavelengths. Looks weren't as important, he was more for the personality.

Jason wanted someone exciting and unconventional, someone who could surprise him, but was still sweet and genuine; he hated people who were fake and pretended to be someone they weren't. Trust was very important to him.

As for Percy, he replied saying he wanted someone intelligent and beautiful, someone who would always stick by his side and someone he could always trust and depend on to be there for him and get him out of trouble, and of course, someone who didn't mind him hanging out with his bros all the time.

After that, there were no more questions and Nia handed them over to Vri, who took all sorts of weird pictures. They started off simple enough, the boys all jumping up in the air, but then it got strange. The last picture was Jason doing a handstand, Leo doing his best horse impression and Percy looking off sincerely into the distance while Frank played a game of scrabble by himself. Of course, this picture was took in black and white. He wondered how that would look in the magazine. Oh well, at least he was getting paid.

On the way out of the interview room, Leo wouldn't shut up about this 'date' he was going on next week. Percy knew he was just making it up, but he let him continue. He wasn't in the mood to argue. His head was still pounding. He made a mental note to never consume twenty $1 shots ever again.

As expected, their manager was waiting for them, and as usual, he wasn't happy. He was holding a magazine in his hand, though Percy couldn't tell which one.

“Did that go well?” he asked in a gruff voice. Everyone nodded. “Good, cause you're gonna need all the good publicity you can get, and I expec t you all to be working twice as hard. No more slacking off. In fact, that album? I want all the vocals recorded by the end of the month.”

“What? How come?” Jason asked, astounded and confused.

The manager held up the magazine. “This is why.” He flicked to page 4, where there was a massive article about this girl band Percy hadn't heard of before. The girls were hot though. “Amazonienne, they're set to be the next big thing. Their first album debuted a few months ago, already got to number one in loads of different countries.”

“Can't be that good if I've never heard of them,” Percy muttered.

“Jackson, when was the last time you ever watched a music channel? Or listened to the radio?”

“I dunno, I don't really listen to anything that's not us.”

“And that's where the problem is. You're too wrapped up in your own ego you don't bother to look at any other bands who might actually be better than you. Now these girls, they're set to become huge. They're the same age as you, same genre, so basically, what I'm saying is, they're your competition. And stuff like this,” he said, getting out photos of Jason and Percy's last night out, “isn't helping your image.”

“What do you want us to do?” asked Frank.

“Cut the crap. Start taking this seriously. This is your job, and more importantly, my job. I don't get paid to babysit; I get paid to keep you famous. So do it. No more wild nights. I don't want any bad press from you. I want to let everyone know that you're serious and aren't going anywhere, and you aren't going to let these girls outshine you, understood?”

“Understood,” everyone chorused.

“Good.”

 


	3. Chapter 3

“Brilliant, just brilliant!” Calypso said, giving the girls yet another round of applause. “Just a few things, though. Annabeth, you know all the moves, obviously, but you're just slightly out of time with everyone else, especially around the chorus, you're doing everything a second ahead of everyone else, and it's putting other people off. Piper, kick with your left foot, not your right, but other than that, perfect. Hazel, you've got everything nailed, but you need to _look_ more like you do. You're an incredible dancer, everyone knows that, but you look like you don't want to be there. You should take some tips from Reyna, look how confident she looks when she's up there.” Hazel nodded and Reyna grinned smugly. “Don't look so smug, Reyna, you're next in the firing line!”

“Ugh, seriously?” Reyna groaned, putting her hands on her hip. As much as she loved Calypso, they'd been friends for ages, way before they got famous, her constant criticisms could be annoying sometimes. You could put on the most perfect performance of all time and she could still find something, but her honesty was the trait Reyna really admired about her, and was the reason she hired her to be their choreographer rather than any of the more famous, more experienced people out there that their manager had suggested.

“Hey, you're the one that hired me as your choreographer, so can listen to my advice and win the Apollo award you're gonna be nominated for, or ignore me and lose to some crappy boyband,” Calypso laughed, trying to make a joke out of it.

“As if that'll ever happen!” Reyna smirked. “Right, girls?” The other girls nodded in unison.

“Well you better work on your spin in the last verse then. Not only did you turn in the opposite direction, but I saw you lose your balance _twice_ and almost knock Piper over.”

Her cheeks blushed a bright crimson. “Sorry, Piper,” she said.

“It's cool,” Piper replied.

“Right, I'll let you take an hour for lunch, then meet back here and go over that again. Sounds fair?” Calypso announced. “It's only three days until we start shooting your new music video and we still have loads left to perfect, don't forget that!”

Reyna jumped off the stage they were dancing on and immediately made a beeline for Annabeth, who was sitting on the steps at the other side of the room, rummaging through her bag. She sat down next to her, putting her hand around her waist. “Hey, babe,” she said. “Where should we go for lunch?”

Annabeth dropped her bag and leaned back in Reyna's arms. “I don't know, where do you want to go?”

“I don't know, that's why I asked you,” she said, pulling her in closer.

“Get a room you two!” Piper yelled, rolling her eyes. “We have young members here, we don't need them scandalised just cause _some_ of us can't keep their hands to themselves,” she said, putting her hands over Hazel's eyes.

“I'm only a year younger than you!” Hazel protested, forcing Piper's hands away from her eyes, but Piper kept pressing them down. “I'm not a baby.”

“How can you be scandalised from watching me give Annabeth a hug?” Reyna said. “What ever would you do if I--”

“Right, we're leaving right now before poor Hazel gets exposed to any more of your filth,” Piper said, zipping up her hoodie. “Come along, Levesque.”

Hazel rolled her eyes. “Whatever, McClean.” She followed Piper out of the door. “Please don't say we're going to McDonalds _again,_ you already went there for breakfast,” she called after Piper who had already walked off down the corridor.

Annabeth laughed, then stood up on the steps. “Shall we go then? We can just walk around until we find somewhere to go.”

“Sounds good,” Reyna said before standing up herself. There wasn't really an abundance of places to eat around here, save for McDonalds (which is where Piper would undoubtedly have dragged Hazel to) and Pizza Hut. Reyna predicted her and Annabeth would end up at the latter. Not exactly the most romantic venue, but they'd had worse dates. Like their first date. They'd only gone out for a coffee (well, a hot chocolate to be more specific), but got interrupted midway through by a fire breaking out in the building next door. Of all things she'd worried about, her and Annabeth not getting along, it being awkward with nothing to talk about, realising they didn't like each other in that way, a fire had been the last thing she was expecting.

After Reyna had put her jacket on, the two left the building hand in hand and walked down the street towards Pizza Hut, though neither of them actually confirmed aloud that they were going there. Annabeth started talking again about her ideas for the stage of their next tour. Reyna smiled, trying to pay attention. If they hadn't gotten a record deal, Annabeth would have gone into architecture, a fact she liked to bring up several times a day. Now, she channelled her love for architecture into stage or set design. Reyna loved Annabeth a lot, but she had to admit, sometimes she wished she had a more interesting hobby.

She hadn't told her yet, though. She'd been waiting and waiting for the right moment, but it never seemed to come. Every time she was about to say it, something would happen. That was her excuse to herself, at least. The real reason was that, well, she was afraid. They'd known each other for years, most of them had been spent endlessly flirting with each other that by the end Piper, Hazel and Calypso had been begging them to get together, but they'd only been officially dating for three months.

“Pizza hut?” Annabeth groaned as they stood in front of it. “For the fourth time in two weeks,” she laughed.

“They should give us a discount really,” Reyna said as they walked inside. “For being so regular and all. We're keeping it in business, really,” she said awkwardly. They could be 30 years married and Annabeth would still always make Reyna nervous, would still make her stomach fill with butterflies and do internal gymnastics.

Their manager had warned them about dating. There were certain tabloids that claimed it was all faked for the publicity. Sometimes she'd even get tweets from weird fans saying that Annabeth was “getting in the way of their ship” (whatever that meant). Reyna never knew how to respond to those comments. She was new to dating. Before Annabeth, she'd never dated anyone in her life. It was a scary experience at times.

Their manager had also said that if they were to break up, it could mean the end of the band depending on how things went. Reyna was determined to not let that happen.

 

 

\--

 

The week had dragged on and on since Jason had been banned from going out with Percy. Not that they'd went out every night, but they'd never been forced to stay in before. Every night since their interview, they'd stayed in, not even talked about going out, which sucked. He didn't even have anything to look forward to, except his date with the girl he could hardly remember. The other guys kept making fun of him for it; they said that 'Idil' would turn out to be ugly, forty years older than him, 10 years younger or a dude (to which Jason defended saying that she was definitely a girl, not that he would mind if it was a guy of course; he wasn't a homophobe).

They'd exchanged several texts throughout the week and eventually he arranged to pick her up from her home rather than meet somewhere else. Leo, of course, told him that was code for “she wants to stay in and fuck you” but Jason obviously ignored him. As if he'd trust Leo's romance advice, when the closest he'd ever got to a relationship was kissing the Rainbow Dash posters on his wall. Jason had caught him one time. After that, Leo had told him he'd took the posters down and thrown them about, but Jason knew they were on the inside of his closet. Leo had made him swear secrecy, and so far he'd kept that promise, but he knew that if Leo ever crossed him, he'd have the best blackmail material.

“Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?” Leo asked, just as Jason was about to leave to pick up his date. “I can be your wingman.”

“I don't think he wants you third-wheeling and ruining his date,” Frank chuckled. “You'd probably try and ask her out yourself, while he's still there.”

“Can't blame a guy for trying,” Leo shrugged, not denying Frank's last comment. “Can you at least ask if she's got any hot friends she can hook me up with?”

“Sure, why not,” Jason sighed.

“Sweet,” Leo said. “Hey, Jay-man, before you go, one more thing,” he said, with a devilish look in his eye.

“No, I'm not phoning you if we have sex.”

“As if I'd ask you to do that,” he rolled his eyes, “have fun, kiddo,” he said, throwing a condom at him. “Stay safe.”

“Seriously? I'm not gonna sleep with her on the first date,” he said, but kept it anyway. “Frank, you coming?”

“Hey! How come Frank gets to go with you and I don't?” Leo protested. “I'll have the condom back then.”

“Why? It's not like you're going to use it,” Frank smirked. “Anyway, I'm not going on the date. I'm just driving him there and picking him up, you know what he's like when he drinks.”

“Ugh, fine. Whatever. Take your Canadian friend. I don't care.”

“Bye, Leo,” Jason said before walking out of their house with Frank. Frank had insisted on driving him there, to stop him from driving drunk and to check that she was the right person (“you're famous, Jason, people will do anything to go out with you,” Frank had told him when Jason said going with him wasn't necessary). Jason didn't mind a great deal; rather Frank than Leo or Percy, who would either try and come on the date too or “accidentally” go to the same place and embarrass Jason in front of Idil.

He wasn't planning on getting too drunk tonight. He'd asked his manager if he was allowed to even go after the whole McDonalds thing and he said he was, granted he didn't make a fool out of himself. Being seen on a date could actually bring some good publicity and hopefully make the media forget about his previous escapades with Percy. Though his manager would have preferred for him to date someone actually famous, but he couldn't have everything.

“Where does she live again?” Frank asked as they sat down in the car. After seeing the blank look on his face, he rolled his eyes and groaned. “Don't tell me you don't even know where she lives and you're picking her up from her _house.”_

“Geez, man, calm down. I'm not as dumb as you think I am, I have it on my phone. She texted me it earlier,” he said, scrolling though his seemingly endless lists messages (most of them from Percy saying “bruh, 'sup” or “dude pass me the Pringles” even though they lived in the same house and could easily have just asked him in person). “There, found it,” he said before typing in her address into the Satnav on Frank's car.

He then fought with Frank for who got to put their iPod into the speakers, settled very maturely with a game of Rock Paper Scissors (Jason won – Frank always picked rock, he was so predictable). He started blasting out his favourite song, Thrift Shop by Macklemore (he loved that man so much), singing as loud as he could. He'd begged and begged the production team to let them do a cover on their next album, but each time he was turned down. He didn't know why; they'd heard him sing it at least forty times by now so they all knew he could smash it. Maybe they just didn't think he could live up to the original, which was understandable.

Ten songs later, they reached Idil's house. She lived in a small apartment on a side of the town where Jason had never been before, at least never sober. Frank accompanied him in the lift up to her block. When he knocked on the door, he waited nervously for her to answer. The person who opened the door was incredibly very, but sort of weird as they were holding a pineapple for no reason and also had a picture of one on their shirt AND had pineapple patterns on their leggings.

“Idil?” Jason asked, biting his lip.

“Nah, I'm her room mate Safira. She's just upstairs getting ready. I'll call her,” they replied, before running towards the staircase yelling “IDIL! YOUR DATE IS HERE!”

They came back, still holding a pineapple. “She'll be down in a minute. Who's your friend?” they gestured towards Frank.

“Who, him? That's just Frank.”

“'Just' Frank? Thanks,” he scoffed. “Just here to make sure he gets on his date okay.”

Safira laughed. “What, are you his mom or something?”

“No,” Jason blushed, feeling embarrassed, “just you know when you're famous and all people will do anything to get on a date with you. Frank just wanted to make sure everything was alright, you know?”

Safira looked confused. “Wait, you guys are famous?” Jason was taken aback. He was so used to people stopping him on the street for his autograph, his twitter mentions flooding with millions of fans asking for a follow back, that to have someone not recognise him was completely alien to him. He couldn't tell whether he liked it or not.

“Yeah, we're in a band,” he said, trying to sound nonchalant, like it was no big deal, but his ego had taken a knock. “Two Bloods.”

“Never heard of you guys, sorry,” they replied. Before Jason could respond, Idil came down the stairs. She was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen, and he'd seen his fair share of beautiful girls.

“Idil?” he asked, just to confirm it was her and not another room mate.

“That's me,” she grinned. “Jason?”

“That's me,” he repeated. He turned to Frank. “Well, Frank, it turns out she's not some forty year old man so you can go home now.”

“If you're sure,” Frank shrugged before walking back to the lift, leaving Jason alone with Idil and Safira, who quickly retreated to their room, meaning it was just Jason and Idil.

“So, where are we going?” she asked.

Oh. That was something he had completely forgot to think about. He had no clue where to take her, and Frank had left with the car.

 

–

 

Frank drove off in his car. Even though it turned out Idil was who she said she was, that didn't stop Frank from being concerned. Before he drove off, he texted Jason to ask him where they were going, but after ten minutes there was still no reply, so Frank decided to go for some food. He was starving.

He parked outside of a small Italian restaurant, which he loved for two reasons. Firstly, they did an excellent Carbonara for a very good price. Secondly, it was never that busy so he was hardly ever recognised.

He never seemed to get as much attention in the press as the other boys in the band. It wasn't that people liked him less, it was just that he wasn't as prolific in the media. Jason and Percy were, well, Jason and Percy. Leo was trying to build a reputation as the ladies man. Frank was more sensible. He didn't mind having that reputation, but there were times when he wanted to be himself a bit more and not have to worry about what others would think.

The restaurant wasn't that packed. Apart from him there were maybe about four other tables full with plenty spare. Just the way he liked it.

He sat down at his usual table in the back corner. He checked his phone. Still nothing from Jason. He hoped he was okay. He tried ringing his number, but it went straight to his answerphone. Typical.

The waiter came and took his order. Frank ordered his usual. He considered trying Jason again, but didn't want to overdo it. Leo already made fun of him enough for his high levels of concern. Frank was just trying to be nice, but Leo seemed to take any opportunity to make fun of him. Frank tried not to let it bother him for the sake of the band, but that didn't always work.

The girl on the table next to him was on the phone, yelling loudly.

“What do you mean we have a rehearsal now?” she groaned. Frank recognised her, but he couldn't put his finger on where. “It's eight on a Friday night. Do they not realise we have a life?”

It was really bugging him that he couldn't remember where he'd seen her before.

“Yeah, Annabeth, I know we start shooting tomorrow. But right now? When we already did loads today? It just seems excessive to me.”

Annabeth. That was a name he'd definitely heard.

“Yeah, we have to do better than Two Bloods. Calypso's already said that enough.”

Hearing the sound of his band name startled him. He took a closer look at her, though subtly, he didn't want to seem like he was staring.

Then, he remembered his manager showing them all the magazine. If he remembered rightly, she was on the cover. Which meant she had to be part of Amazonienne, their supposed rivals. What was she doing here?

“Fine, but I literally just ordered my food. That's not fair,” she moaned. “Yes, I can be there in an hour. Start without me. I want my carbonara.” She put the phone down.

“You like the carbonara too?” Frank asked. She looked startled. “Nice choice.” She didn't say anything and just started at him in disbelief. “That's what I'm getting too.”

“It's my favourite,” she replied with a smile. “Frank Zhang, right? From Two Bloods.”

“Guilty,” he said. “Hazel Levesque, right? From Amazonienne?” He hoped he'd gotten her name right.

“That's me. God, we shouldn't be talking to each other. My manager would probably freak and say I'm fraternising with the enemy or whatever.”

Frank laughed. “Same here. Is that why you're having a rehearsal at this time of night? So you can get ahead of us?”

“Apparently so. I don't get why there can't be enough room for two pop bands, but we're always being told we can't just be good, we have to be the best.”

“I know. I'm just glad we don't have to do that much dancing.”

“Which is so not fair! You don't even have to do half as much rehearsing as we have to. You just have to turn up and look good and everyone adores you.”

“Hey, that's not fair. We have to do work too.”

Hazel sighed. “See, we're arguing. Which is exactly what they want us to do. They want us to have some big rivalry so they can use that to boost sales and media attention.”

“And I take it you don't want that to happen?”

“No! I don't see why we can't just be nice and support each other instead.”

“Yeah, that'd be nice,” Frank said. Suddenly feeling brave, he decided to ask something else. “So, seeing as you don't want to go for the whole enemies thing, we could try a different angle.”

“Oh really? And what would that be?”

“I could take you out next Friday,” he said, suddenly feeling very self-conscious. “If you wanted to or weren't busy,” he added quickly.

Hazel blushed. “You mean on a date?”

“If you wanted to call it that.”

“Sure,” she smiled. “I'd like that a lot.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this has been a while since I updated this, sorry everyone!


	4. Chapter 4

   “Did my man score last night?” was the first thing Jason heard the next morning. Currently, he was lying on the couch with only his hoodie for warmth. Leo was standing above him, grinning widely, which was never a good sign.

   “What?” Jason asked, rubbing his eyes. It was ten in the morning, but he couldn't remember what time he'd came in or how much sleep he'd gotten. It didn't feel like much.

   “Your date!” Leo said. “Did you, you know,” Leo made a thrusting action, complete with the moans.

   “Leo, you're twenty years old. Not twelve,” Frank sighed as he walked in the room holding a mug of coffee.

   “And you're twenty years old, not fifty,” Leo countered. Frank ignored him. “Anyway, you haven't told us what happened! Did you show her some McLovin?”

   “I don't know what you're talking about,” Jason admitted. “It was just a date. There was no _sex_ , if that's what you meant.”

   “Boring,” Leo faked a yawn. “Meanwhile I-”

   “Sat at home and played with yourself?” Jason joked. “You don't have to make up stories, Leo. First off, literally nobody believes them. Two, getting a girlfriend's not the most important thing in life.”

   “Says the dude who just went on a date.”

   “One date. When was the last time I went on a date before last night?”

   “Fair enough,” Leo shrugged. “Where did you guys go anyway?”

   “Well, I got there and I realised that I had no idea what were doing.”

   “Classy.”

   “So I asked her what would make up her ideal date and we'd do that. So, we ended up hiring out a cinema to watch Pride and Prejudice, which is her favourite movie. It was nice, we were the only ones there so it was really romantic and nobody could interrupt us.”

   “Is that the only thing you did? Go to the movies?” Leo snorted. “Dude, that's freshman year dates. You're a rockstar, man! You could've, I don't know, taken her for a helicopter ride over New York. Or flown to Europe.”

   “Right, even though we don't even have a helicopter.”

   “You know what I mean!”

   “Then, we had a picnic in the park under the stars and talked. It was nice,” Jason smiled wistfully. “We're going out next week actually.”

   Before Leo could respond, Frank and Percy returned with concerned expressions on their faces. Jason hadn't even realised they'd left. Percy was holding his phone and looking at it like he'd just read a break-up text or something equally as awful.

   “What's up?” Jason asked.

   “How do you guys feel about song writing?”

 

\--

   If there was one thing Piper McLean hated, it was people who were rude for no reason. She simply did not understand how some people could be so intentionally cruel to other people when there was no need for it. If you had nothing nice to say to someone, then don't say anything at all.

   That message, apparently, hadn't hit the people of social media yet. Piper was obligated to have an Instagram and a Twitter in order to update her fans on any news (or simply to post selfies), but there were some days when just logging on made her want to throw her phone off the wall.

   Most people on there were lovely. She adored every single one of her fans and she made sure they knew that by tweeting about how grateful she was for them. But for every positive comment she received, there was always those spreading negativity. She tried to be a nice person and concentrate on the good, but that was hard when there were so many mean people.

   She'd been called ugly, fake, bland, no personality, every insult under the sun. Those, she tried her best to ignore. Ugly was subjective and really not the best way to insult someone as it didn't say anything about ones personality. Fake? She was as genuine as they come. As for the “bland” or “no personality” comments, she ignored them too. What did some trolls on the internet know about her life or how she acted?

   No, what really got to her was when people accused her of buying her celebrity status. It was no secret that her dad was Tristan McLean, the world-famous Hollywood actor. Once people found that out, the immediate assumption was that he had to be the reason why she was famous. The idea that a Native woman could become successful in the music industry without cheating or having “help” was apparently impossible.

   So, when Piper logged on this morning she was half-expecting to see the usual barrage of hate mail in her mentions. This time, however, the first tweets were nothing of the sort.

  “Hey Piper! Would you read my Pipazel fanfiction?”

   “do u ever get jealous of Reyna cause she gets 2 date annabeth and u dont :( #pipabethotp”

   “piper my friend said she ships frazel (hazel + frank from 2 bloods) is this an acceptable reason to unfollow her plz respond!!”

   “my friend drew this fanart of you and jason grace isnt it amazing!!! :D”

   Piper opened the picture. It was a picture of her and Jason Grace from Two Bloods kissing. She frowned. She'd never even spoken to him in her life, never mind kissed him.

   At one point, Piper had a reputation online of being a 'matchmaker'. It was common knowledge that Piper was instrumental in getting Annabeth and Reyna together, so sometimes her fans would write to her asking for romantic advice. She often tried her best to respond but she didn't always have time . So she supposed it was no surprise really that now people were asking her about her own relationships and trying to play matchmaker for her.

   “A lot of people are asking me about my own love life and who they “ship” me with but trust me there's nobody for me right now xx” Piper tweeted, though she knew that wasn't going to change much.

   Within seconds, people were sending tweets with even more links to their fanfiction and fanart.

   “i kno u said u werent dating anyone but i think my pipabeth fic may change ur mind ;)” was her personal favourite. As if she would read a story by a fan detailing of her having sex with her best friend would suddenly make her want to break up Annabeth and Reyna just so she could date Annabeth.

    She wondered if this ever happened to the other girls. Reyna and Annabeth were dating, so maybe it wasn't as bad. That would be something to talk about next time they were together, that was for sure.

 

\--

 

   Song writing sessions didn't go as well as planned. A hundred scrapped sheets of paper and three dozen mugs of coffee later, the boys had a grand total of zero words written. After trying and failing to write as a group, they'd tried doing it separately and then comparing them, but that wasn't much better.

   Leo went first. “ _Oh sweet baby honey pie, the rainbow's in your eyes, I know you're Team Leo for the win, now let's go skin to skin.”_

   “And I thought Rockstar was a bad song,” Frank laughed.

   Jason's attempt was next. “ _I'm gonna pop some tags only got thirty dollars in my pocket, I'm hunting, look for a come-up this is-”_

   “Jason, bro, you can't just copy Thrift Shop and change one word and claim it's your song,” said Percy.

   “Yeah, and what have you written?”

   Percy cleared his throat. “ _Under the sea--”_

   “Which is The Little Mermaid.”

   “Let me finish, man!” Percy groaned. “ _Under the sea, there's just you and me, nobody else around, unless they just drowned, let me be your bubble of air, while I can't help but stop and stare, you look so good in that bikini, makes me wanna eat tortellini, you're not like the other girls, you hang with the bros and this ain't a trick girl I just wanna show you my-”_

    “Easy there,” Leo interrupted. “Maybe not what the label's looking for.”

   Frank laughed. There were times when he questioned whether or not the band was worth it. Sure, he loved all his friends and he loved making music with them, but it just seemed to cause trouble. The guys wouldn't always take things seriously and they had to always be conscious of their image considering how they were constantly in the media. Well, in theory anyway. There was the lack of privacy. There were some days when Frank couldn't even look out of the window without the paparazzi taking photos of him. Before they were famous, they all lived together in this small apartment. After they'd became famous, their manager thought it might be a good idea to carry on living there for a while to make them appear more down to earth, but then that ended up being a nightmare. They still lived together, but more out of the way.

   Then there were moments like these that made it all worth it. Sure, it wasn't want their superiors were wanting them to do, but they were having fun and making memories. Soon, they'd be in the studio, singing songs written for them by other people, not even touching these “songs” again, but it didn't matter. They would keep moments like this with them forever, hopefully, and Frank wouldn't swap that for the world.

 


End file.
